Test Space: Speak Up #1 for Grassroots Arts Sunderland
At this first of two events exploring the issues surrounding the development of grassroots arts initiatives in Sunderland, we were joined by a wide range of creatives, artists, activists and organiser from across the city and beyond.
We kicked off the event with a brief introduction to Test Space by Sue Loughlin and a rousing talk by Corinne Kilvington, who helped us to understand the realities of grassroots working, including risk and expectations, and offered top tips and salient points for consideration.
Corinne was followed by Jo Howell who encouraged us to think about the folk culture inherent in Sunderland and how this related to the arts, monetisation and gentrification. Jo made interesting points regard the removal of Arts from STEAM strands in education and the impacts of STEM as well as the role of institutions in the growth/demise of local arts and culture.
Next, Michaela Wetherell brought us up to speed on the origins and evolution of Pink Collar Gallery and the state of play when attempting a career in the arts. After many a set back which strengthened her resolve, Michaela is now making great headway with Pink Collar, supporting artist career development and bringing workshops and exhibitions to a wide range of locations in the area.
In the second half of the event, these discussion questions were posed:
What do we want large organisations and institutions to know?
What do we need from large organisations and institutions?
What examples of good practice have we come across?
We also explored the following statements, gauging levels of agreement:
“I feel like I am given the creative freedom I need when I am working with large organisations”
“I feel like large organisations involve freelancers and our communities early enough in the process of creating new projects”
“I feel that large organisations have clear and open recruitment processes”
“The payment process with larger organisations is clear and transparent”
“I feel that my experience and expertise is valued by large organisations”
“Large organisations offer appropriate professional development and networking opportunities for artists”
Once we heard feedback on the various topics, Corinne explained the way the next Test Space event would work and how the learning from this session would feed into that.
Finally, Sue invited the group to ‘speak up’ and share their news, events and positive actions that were already taking place or planned. We heard from Su Devine about the Art Café and developments at Breeze and the Moving Gallery, from Barry West about the big Sunderland Indie exhibition planned for Culture House, Jay Sykes about a range of fantastic workshops and opportunities including podcasting and script read throughs, Auburn Langley about the reopening of the Lit and Phil Society at the Atheneum and Posey Jowett about opportunities for creatives in the Keel Square Glass Pavilion…all of which warmed our hearts on a cold night!
All in all it was a full and focused evening of sharing and developing an insight into the experiences of artists, the aspirations for the grassroots community and gathering artist voices to take forward to our next session on 3rd March 2025 at Pop Recs from 1-3pm.
If you attend the next session you will be able to hear more in-depth feedback from this event, as well as an excellent keynote speech from Dr Susan Jones. We have invited a range of organisations and cultural institutions to join us for collaborative discussion, listening and learning.
These wonderful illustrated notes were made by Miki Rogers, who brilliantly capture all the key elements of the discussion.
